Dream On

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling."

So, I saw Inception on Monday and it's taken me this long to assess the movie. It wasn't bad, quite the contrary, it was on of the best movies I've seen in a really long time. However, there's just so much. Each day, I thought of something new about this movie, and it was great.

Frankly, I'm seeing this movie again. Next week cannot come fast enough and I think everyone should see this movie. Well, if you like this type of chaotic, makes you think movie. If you only really like Disney films and vapid romantic comedies and simple plots with lots of explosions, this isn't for you.

Let's start with the cast. Perfect. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, our protagonist who is able to get into people's dreams and extract information. He works with Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Ariadne (Ellen Page) directly. Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, and Michael Caine also star. They are all excellent and this was an excellent example of great casting. This movie could've been crap and this cast would've salvaged it.

Now, let's talk plot. It's very complicated, yet very simple. Cobb can slip into people's dreams and extract information, which, when used for corporate espionage, is illegal. For some reason (no spoilers here!), Cobb is unable to go home and Saito offers to clear his record if he can manage inception. Inception is planting an idea in someone's subconscious and Arthur thinks it's impossible. Cobb says you just have to go deep enough and hence begins our adventure.

I was afraid that this would be more complicated, but it was surprisingly simple to grasp, while being remarkably complicated. At the beginning I was a little disoriented, unsure of what was a dream and what was a reality, however I liked it. I won't lie, I was worried this would be a heaping piece of shit like that movie from a few years back Stay, with Ewan McGregor and Ryan Gosling, but this was infinitely better.

This film is visually magnificent. The two standouts to me all took place at the same time. I loved the fight featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the zero-gravity hotel corridor. It was mesmerizing and awesome. I appreciate it even more after hearing Gordon-Levitt (my future husband, ps) say in an interview that they shot it in a rotating box. SUH-WEET. The second standout was the way Christopher Nolan handled the time-frame of the three dreams. How the van dropped in slow motion, the hotel lost gravity, and the rest was in normal time (as far as we're concerned). Brilliant.

I'm starting to wonder if Leonardo DiCaprio is trying to tell us something with his latest role choices, but they are great movies (if you haven't seen Shutter Island, stop reading this and go Netflix/On Demand it right now) and they really make you think twice. They are movies that you leave debating with whoever you see it with, which is refreshing.

A+, Christopher Nolan! A+++! As someone who doesn't really care for the new Batman series (I won't lie, I wasn't too impressed with The Dark Knight, with the exception of Heath Ledger), I was a little nervous going into this. It definitely did not disappoint. I'm going to see it again next week. Make sure you don't doze off or have to run to the bathroom during this, you need to pay close attention to everything. It flies by and is a lot of fun. Fab movie.

"Dream On" by Aerosmith; 1973